There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
So I ask because I have yet to see anybody post a testimonial about using a watch winder daily and having it last reasonable amount of time. I have read accounts of people having a winder for as long as 10 years, but they never use it regularly. I'm wondering just how deep your pockets have to be to get one that actually works a long time. Haven't found that one person with first-hand experience willing to come forward yet. I actually have taken each winder apart after failing, and either the control circuits or the motors are too light-duty to hold up. My last one had very light duty control circuits with decent-looking motors and drive trains. It really needed some beefier transistors to drive the motors.
I initially wanted to use a winder to keep my old Seiko 5 that I wore regularly on my job to stay wound over the weekend when I was wearing other watches. I never liked the shake-start routine when I was hurrying to get ready for work on a Monday morning. I gave up on that plan after 8 years and started using a solar powered watch at work instead.